Modeling cognitive load and physiological arousal through pupil diameter and heart rate

Abstract

This study investigates individuals' cognitive load processing abilities while engaged on a decision-making task in serious games, to explore how a substantial cognitive load dominates over the physiological arousal effect on pupil diameter. A serious game was presented to the participants, which displayed the on-line biofeedback based on physiological measurements of arousal. In such dynamic decision-making environment, the pupil diameter was analyzed in relation to the heart rate, to evaluate if the former could be a useful measure of cognitive abilities of individuals. As pupil might reflect both cognitive activity and physiological arousal, the pupillary response will show an arousal effect only when the cognitive demands of the situation are minimal. Evidence shows that in a situation where a substantial level of cognitive activity is required, only that activity will be observable on the pupil diameter, dominating over the physiological arousal effect indicated by the pupillary response. It is suggested that it might be possible to design serious games tailored to the cognitive abilities of an individual player, using the proposed physiological measurements to observe the moment when such dominance occurs.

Built Environment Characteristics, Daily Travel, and Biometric Readings: Creation of an Experimental Tool Based on a Smartwatch Platform

“…Much like automated travel diaries for mobile phones, software for these widely available platforms makes it possible to reach device users in a more effective manner than before, since it requires less activity from both the device user to participate and for the researcher to distribute software and hardware, as the user can utilise their own hardware and the researcher can distribute their software through operating system dependant marketplaces [32,33]. Recent research shows proof that it is possible to deduce mental conditions, such as cognitive load, through the use of such types of hardware [19]. By combining several sensors, the different data streams can be used to confirm and imply these conditions.…”

“…With the currently available technology, it is not only possible but also easy to obtain biometric data such as heart rate using wearable devices that resemble watches [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. By adding the collection of such biometric data, it is possible to extract more information that might relate to psychophysiological conditions, such as cognitive load and stress, from biometric sensors [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The addition of the possibility of deriving such information opens a new perspective on how travel surveys can be enriched, analysed, and deployed.…”

Attention-dependent physiological correlates in sleep deprived healthy humans

“…For example, there is a positive association between cognitive load, level of glucose and oxygen in the brain [21], and forehead temperature [22,23]. An increase in heart rate with increasing difficulty in decision making and level of attention [24][25][26] and as a decrease in heart rate variability with increasing difficulty in response inhibition and memory [27][28][29] have also been documented. Regarding skin conductance, its increase has been detected during the performance on attention, memory, vigilance, and visual tracking tasks [30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

Attention-Dependent Physiological Correlates in Sleep-Deprived Young Healthy Humans

“…For example, there is a positive association between cognitive load, level of glucose and oxygen in the brain [18], and forehead temperature [19,20]. An increase in heart rate with increasing difficulty in decision making and level of attention [21,22] and a decrease in heart rate variability with increasing difficulty in response inhibition and memory [23,24] have also been documented. Regarding skin conductance, its increase has been detected during the performance on attention, memory, vigilance, and visual tracking tasks [25][26][27].…”